What's Your Priority?

[AKA_Monet]

Originally posted by Love_Spell_6
but before all that..I am a child of the most high..

But the reality is no land is promised to us...

We can literally lose all that we have within a few hours... Just ask the folks that just had Hurricane Charley ransack their houses... Including my MIL, her sister, my grandmother and my blind aunt by diabetes...

So what? If FEMA doesn't give us loans to fix our homes...

So what, if the folks in Iraq are picking up the shambles of their squalored lives...

But somehow, folks are swimming faster than ever through the one element that may have started life on this planet...

And since we are all custodians of this rock called Earth, maybe we have surpassed our ability to sustain human life on it? I dunno???

However, I've got to agree with Love_Spell on this one, we are the beneficiaries of the Spirit and we must have the hope to want to triumph through all tribulations...

So, I guess, that is what the Olympics is all about--the few atheletes that try to out do each other with brute strength... And folks can see that only the strong can survive...

But the meek shall inherit the Earth...

[Conskeeted7]

I guess I can parallel the way some people feel about America to the way I feel about my hometown. I chose to leave it when I was young because I disagreed with the people, politics, values, and so much more. Now, there are still plenty of people living there. However, my personal goals and values would not allow me to stay there. I felt very strongly about my reasons for leaving and NOTHING could convince me to go back there to live with all things remaining the same.

So, this may be why I find it difficult to see how a person can disagree with so much of something, yet remain. I'm not saying that you don't have a right to. I just couldn't do it. It's like saying that you can't stand Ms. so and so, but when she gets here, you still talk to her. Why? If the dislike is that strong, why even front?

When I was in Europe, I had conversations with people about the US. There were several topics that they could not understand and questioned me about. There actually was a news story on CNN about a shooting in my hometown. Did I have to explain racism? Yes. Homelessness? Yes. Disparities in health care? Yes. Did I feel pleasure in those discussions? No, but I didn't want to leave my country. There were problems there also. It just broadened my awareness of the characteristics in my behavior and being that make me American. I was proud of my differences.

So, because I don't want to leave the US and am proud to live here, I'm likened to a slave that doesn't want to be free? I am free. I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to do with my life and I chose to stay here and do it. I chose a city and state that I wanted to live in and that were better suited for my values and beliefs and I moved. I'm completely satisfied with that decision and my decision to stay in the US. I recognize that there problems in the US, but that will never change the fact that I am American, born and raised. No matter what country I go to, that fact will remain. Not being proud to be American is not being proud of who I am.

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by Conskeeted7
So, this may be why I find it difficult to see how a person can disagree with so much of something, yet remain. I'm not saying that you don't have a right to. I just couldn't do it. It's like saying that you can't stand Ms. so and so, but when she gets here, you still talk to her. Why? If the dislike is that strong, why even front?

So, because I don't want to leave the US and am proud to live here, I'm likened to a slave that doesn't want to be free? I am free.

No, fronting would be when President Bush asked me what I thought of America, I would lie and say I loved it here. That would be fronting. Fronting would have been posting in this thread that I would root for the Americans over the black girl. That would have been fronting.

My question still remains, why is embarrassment being equated with dislike/hatred?

Remaining in America for now is biding my time. Why? For one, it's a lot harder to move out of the country than it is to move from city to city and state to state. Maybe (just maybe) my love for my family and friends outweighs my lack of pride. Two, there is a such thing as solidarity. The reason I choose to stay in America for now is the same reason Harriet Tubman continued to return to the south instead of simply leaving it for good. I choose to stay here because I have a desire to affect change. The moment that I think change is impossible is the moment that I will plan my move.

Soror, please do not be offended by the slave reference, because that was most definitely not my intention (towards you or anyone else). However, I think that we are ALL still slaves, myself included. The plantations look different; the master is the same, but not as easily identifiable; and the shackles are invisible, but still just as strong. I don't think that any of us are TRULY free. However, I feel that freedom is worth fighting for. That is why I am staying for now, because to me, to leave, would be the same as surrender/defeat (not to mention a waste of lives and deaths). And I really don't want to go out like that.

ETA: my last sentence reminds me of Savvy's quote.

[Professor]

Can I try to help you out - my example - i'm embarassed by some of my relatives but that does not mean that i don't love and support them

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by Professor
Can I try to help you out - my example - i'm embarassed by some of my relatives but that does not mean that i don't love and support them

Thanks, Phrat. Even though you disagree with me fundamentally, you get what I'm trying to say.

[Conskeeted7]

No offense taken, simply discussion

Each of us has had different experiences with racism, patriotism, unemployment, health care, etc. Therefore, it's unreasonable to expect that we would all feel the same way about such a broad and personal subject.

I do understand the opposing points made in this forum. However, I'm just taken aback because the responses varied greatly from my expectations. Maybe I've been living in the country (not the US, but the cornfields) too long because I just didn't realize that people were embarassed to live here.

I commend Soror Ideal for staying to aid in the fight for equality and freedom. I've reached a point where the I felt that change was impossible and that's what led me to leave my hometown. If I started to feel the way about the US that I did, and still do, about my hometown, I'd be on the first flight to somewhere else.

[Diamond Delta]

Originally posted by Sugar_N_Spice
Exactly. I may lack pride in this country, but that doesn not mean that I would want to live somewhere else (esp. when my ancestors are part of the foundation of this country). Nor does that mean that I hate it here, and therefore, should leave. On the contrary, I am not "misreable" living in the US--however I wish that our country lived up to more of its ideals, such as justice and equality for all, equal protection under the law, no discrimination, etc. I find it a shame that we are one of the wealthiest countries in the entire world, yet we have so many people here living in poverty (and, no I am not refering to ilegal immigrants). And, yes, while I do find this sad, I am one of those people out in the world actively working to change things (actually, it's what I plan to make my career)...

You can not truely discuss the "poverty" in America until you have witnessed it in other countries. We give peope here a lot more help than any other place. Even illegal immigratns here have rights....not going to find that anywhere else.